The Science of Jiujitsu

Editor’s introduction: The following article describes the
arrival of the British professional wrestler and showman Leopold McLaglan
[EN1] in Shanghai in 1914. The descriptions of jujutsu
and katsu (resuscitation) are not accurate, but nonetheless
show that patterns of promotion commonly used today are not recent innovations.

***

The word jiujitsu will have a new meaning for many in Shanghai today.
Hazy notions of the science promise to develop into practical knowledge
of its utility. Most people believe that jiujitsu can only be mastered
by the young and athletic who are prepared to give years of study in order
to attain proficiency. But Captain Leopold McLaglen, jiujitsu champion
of the world, holds a different opinion, which is supported by the letters
of British army officers who took their first lessons after they had reached
fifty years of age, says the North-China Daily News of March 14.

From Police Jiu-Jitsu, London, 1922

Captain McLaglen, who has offered his services to the S.V.C [ Shanghai
Volunteer Corps], says that every man should know something of the
science of jiujitsu. In the course of a conversation yesterday [e.g., March
13] he said that we often hear that the pen is mightier than the sword,
but he could truthfully say that jiujitsu is mightier than physical strength.
It teaches us that the small and apparently weak must not be despised.
A slight knowledge of the science puts a man in the position of being able
to defend himself against any ruffian who may attack him.

Capt. McLaglen, met casually in the street, would strike one as an exceptionally
powerful man. He stands 6ft. 6in. in height and turns the scale at 226
lbs., while he is hard as the proverbial nail. One has little difficulty
in believing that he is a champion at jiujitsu, but while he admits that
his physique has been a great factor in success, yet he emphasized that
more strength is really a vain, and empty thing.

The rudiments of jiujitsu can be absorbed by the student in eight lessons,
but of course he must practice assiduously. Capt. McLaglen has had pupils
under his instruction who have weighed nine stone [126 pounds] and been
able to defeat professional athletes weighing fifteen stone [210 pounds].

The Science Explained

Jiujitsu is a system which is built upon the applications of anatomy:
a series of interlocking bones which, when once applied, makes it impossible
for an opponent to escape. Then there is the great secret science of kai-jitsu
[sic, kiai
jutsu is meant], or producing simin-jitsu [sic; saimin jutsu,
or hypnosis, is meant] which enables the exponent to put a subject to sleep
by the mere pressure of the hands. [EN2]

Before simin-jitsu is taught, the pupil must become proficient in katsu
, which is undoubtedly one of the most ancient and perfect systems of restoration.
[EN3]

Capt. McLaglen said: "I can stop the heart beating and restore it to
its normal condition by katsu. It is interesting to note that many soldiers
in warfare receive a bullet through their bodies and die, not because the
wound was vital but from shock. A man in such a case could be restored
to life, if the heart had stopped beating for half an hour, provided the
climatic conditions were suitable. Persons suffering from epileptic fits
can also be restored by first putting them to sleep and then awakening
them by katsu."

"I believe, he continued, "that I am right in saying that the European
population of the world will realize in the future of the great value of
this science which, according to authentic records now in the keeping of
the Emperor of Japan, was known 200 years before Christ." [EN4]

Stimulation of Nerve Centers

It is quite simple to impart this knowledge to pupils, and if the members
of the Volunteer Corps desire to learn they may now do so. The science
of katsu teaches how to stimulate the nerve centers of the body – those
controlling the action of the heart, the auditory nerves and the neurogastric
nerves. These different nerves are affected simultaneously and in a few
seconds the subject can be restored to consciousness.

To attain such proficiency in jiujitsu as to be able to protect himself,
the pupil does not require to wrestle on the floor or to fatigue himself.
There is no great strain or labor; nerve control overcomes brute force.

Capt. McLaglen began to study jiujitsu at the age of twelve years. His
uncle was an officer attached to the British Legation in Tokyo, and when
he returned home he was accompanied by a Japanese student who became a
servant in order to travel and learn English. At that time McLaglen was
a tall, thin schoolboy who was always getting whipped by smaller boys.
The Japanese began to teach him jiujitsu, and in a month he was able to
whip any boy in the school. The Japanese remained with the family until
McLaglen was nineteen years of age, by which time he was able to defeat
his master.

Severe Tests

When the South African War [1899-1902] broke out, Capt. McLaglen volunteered,
and in 1901 he was sent out with the Mounted
Infantry. The war over, he became a professional instructor in jiujitsu.
Later he went to America and was there challenged by Prof. T. H. Kanada,
and they met to decide the championship of the world. Before an audience
of 15,000 in New Westminster, B.C., McLaglen won the championship. Later
he defeated T. E. Hiria, M. Tani and Prof. Yamagata, one of the best men
in Japan, who was engaged by President Roosevelt to teach the American
police jiujitsu. Captain McLaglen broke the professor’s arm. Prof. Fukamauchi,
Prof. Shimura and [Henry] De Raymond all sustained defeat, the last named,
a man of 350 lbs., retiring with a broken shoulder blade. In Calcutta,
January 1913, Capt. McLaglen defeated Prof. Yamasaki and Prof. Toda, these
contests, according to the Englishman, taking place on two carpets
worth £500 apiece. Jack Johnson and [Frank] Gotch declined challenges.
[EN5]

Capt. McLaglen has been retained as instructor to many branches of the
British army in India and South Africa, while he has given lessons to troops
and police in Burma, the Straits Settlements [e.g., Singapore], Manila
and Hongkong.

Demonstration in Town Hall

Lieut.-Col. R. N. Bray, Major T. E. Treeman, and Captain Hilton Johnson
were amongst those present to witness a demonstration of jiujitsu by Captain
McLaglen in the Officers’ Room at the Town Hall last evening [e.g., March
13, 1914]. [EN6] Captain McLaglen gave an interesting
outline of the history of jiujitsu, mentioning that the Japanese jealously
guarded the deadly secret of the science – the death blow, by which they
brought about death in three ways: a blow on the spine, one on the head,
or two on the neck. To Europeans, they only taught the rudiments of these
blows, and also of the sleep producing holds.

The lecturer then proceeded to demonstrate some of the jiujitsu methods
of defending oneself by means of scientific attack, and clearly showed
that he, at any rate, had gathered much more than the rudiments of the
art from his instructors. He first showed how a man threatening to attack
with a knife could be brought to the ground by means of a simple movement
of his wrist; also, by the means of pressure on the waist from behind,
paralyzing a nerve center and bringing the opponent down; and again by
pressure against a nerve under the nose. The sleep producing hold was also
demonstrated, the "subject" being sent into an apparently sound, natural
sleep within ten seconds, and restored again to complete consciousness
in an equally short space of time.

At the close of the demonstration, Lieut.-Col. Bray thanked Captain
McLaglen for his lecture, and expressed the hope that a sufficient number
of volunteers would give in their names at the Orderly Room to enable the
class to be started.

The lessons are to occupy an hour a day for eight days, beginning at
an hour most convenient to those who join the class, probably 6.30 in the
evening.

Editor’s Postscript

In the foregoing account, note that

The teacher was initially a bullied lad who found an anonymous foreign
instructor from whom to learn a hitherto secret martial art.

The secret art was subsequently perfected in a foreign war.

Upon returning from military service, the teacher made challenges to the
wrestling and boxing champions, but these were ignored, apparently because
the champions were afraid of the teacher’s skills. Nevertheless, based
on the outcome of some poorly documented matches, the teacher subsequently
claimed to be the undefeated champion of the world.

The teacher has given many seminars to policemen and military reservists.

The teacher’s art is too deadly for words, but it can still be learned
by pupils of good character in just eight lessons of one hour per day.

All of these are themes of folklore.

In addition, as one might surmise, contemporary newspaper accounts of
McLaglan’s exploits do not always correspond with the subsequent hype.
For example, following McLaglan’s match with Kanada, the one that McLaglan
later said made him Champion of the World, a sportswriter for the Vancouver
Daily
Province (October 5, 1907, p. 14) observed, "There was little, if any,
jiu-jitsu to the performance… It was apparent to everyone that McLaglen’s
knowledge of the game could be covered with a pinhead." This is another
common theme of modern martial art promotion – you don’t have to be any
good to be a "master," you just have to promote yourself well.

For further reading on the topics of folk history in the martial arts,
and Captain McLaglan’s role in it, try the following:

Green, Thomas A. (Forthcoming). "Sense in Nonsense: The Role of Folk History
in the Martial Arts." In Thomas A. Green and Joseph R. Svinth (Ed.), Martial
Arts in the Modern World: Transmission, Change, and Adaptation (Westport,
CT: Greenwood).

Green, Thomas A. (1997). "Historical Narrative in the Martial Arts: A Case
Study." In Tad Tujela (Ed.), Usable Pasts: Traditions and Group Expressions
in North America (pp. 156-174). Logan: Utah State University Press.

EN1. Leopold McLaglan normally spelled his name using
"a" rather than "e." However, his brother, actor Victor McLaglen, normally
spelled it with an "e," as did the author of this newspaper article.

EN2. In a letter to Robert W. Smith dated May 28,
1950, E. J. Harrison wrote, in reference to his famous kiai-jutsu story,
"True, Kunishige could revive a seemingly dead person, and knowledge of
kuatsu
enables its possessor to restore the victim of strangulation provided it
is promptly administered. But, say, the story of causing birds to fall
senseless from a tree and then reviving them is taken from my Fighting
Spirit of Japan. The story deals with one Matsujuro who flourished
hundreds of years ago, and I myself never vouched for its truth!"

EN5. These descriptions come from McLaglan, and have
not been verified through contemporary newspaper accounts.

EN6. Alan Hilton-Johnson was a member of the Shanghai
Municipal Police from 1908-1925, so connections between W. E. Fairbairn
and McLaglan are possible.

In February 2002, reader Mark Hewitt wrote:

Recent research confirms that the Capt. Victor Fred MacLaglan
who was in the Minneapolis/Milwaukee area from approximately November 1911
through March 1912 was none other than Leopold MacLaglan. He is working
as a doorman in a Milwaukee movie theater when he began making challenges
to fight broadsword contests. He claimed to be an expert at "the sabre,
broadsword, foil and bayonet." He won three duels versus Carl Brosius,
"of the German army," and lost a boxing match to Fireman Jim Flynn. He
claimed to be a Boer War veteran and to have boxed Jack Johnson (this was
actually Victor's accomplishment). Then, the newspapers recognized him
as the same guy who previously had appeared in jiu-jitsu contests. Victor
MacLaglan, in Texas touring the vaudeville circuit with the Romano Brothers
troupe, heard about it and sent a letter denouncing the imposter. Apparently
the brothers had a falling out which was still unresolved in the 1930s,
when Leopold tried to sue Victor for defaming him. It's odd that Leopold
used the name "Victor Fred" as these were both names of two of his brothers.
(Another MacLaglan brother boxed and wrestled as Fred McKay.)